Ticket prices slashed for Hong Kong e-sports festival after concerts cancelled, organiser announces
Half of the 5,168 seats at gaming event will cost HK$50 each, a move the Hong Kong Tourism Board hopes will attract more tourists and young people
Ticket prices for Hong Kong’s e-sports festival next month have been slashed as organisers hope to attract more young visitors and tourists to the HK$40 million event.
More than half of the 5,168 seats will cost HK$50 each, while the other two tiers will be priced at HK$120 and HK$250, depending on seat location, the organiser of the video game competition yesterday said Last year, four tiers of tickets were sold at HK$480, HK$280, HK$150 and HK$80.
Mason Hung Chung-hing, the board’s general manager, said about 80,000 visitors were expected to pour into the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre during the three-day e-Sports & Music Festival Hong Kong starting on August 24. “We hope to reach out to more tourists and younger people,” he said.
Public money down the drain as concerts planned for Hong Kong e-sports festival are canned
The estimated number of visitors is a 33 per cent increase from the 60,000 visitors last year when the festival debuted in the city. Matches will be streamed live to about 12 million viewers worldwide.
The festival features three popular games; League of Legends, with a prize pool of HK$100,000; PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) with prize of US$150,000 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) with an award of US$300,000. The games will have more than 110 players in total.
To better engage with Hongkongers in the annual event, local fans of PUBG will have a chance to compete with 14 teams of international top players.
Those who are interested are invited to join a qualifying round ahead of the event at Plaza Hollywood in Diamond Hill from July 19 to 22. The two best performing teams of four will be awarded HK$200,000 in total and represent the city in the “Hong Kong PUBG World Invitational”.
Organisers hope cheap tickets and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds will lure young fans to Hong Kong e-sports festival
E-Sports Association Hong Kong chairman Ryan Chow Kai-hong, who helps organise the events, said awareness of e-sports had improved in the past year, but still there were barriers such as parents’ perception of the games.
“Hong Kong has held some large-scale e-sports events in the past year, which is good for the industry,” Chow, 31, said. “I understand that some parents are not yet supportive of their children playing e-sports, but their perception is improving.”
He said in his case, his mother was opposed to him playing e-sports for more than 10 years, but became supportive in the past couple of years. “She used to scold me whenever I played games, but now she often asks me to go home for soup,” he said.
Hung said the event cost HK$40 million, of which HK$35 million was funded by the board and rest from its sponsor, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Asia).
